Mouse-mechanism-cutaway.png|thumb|300px|Operating a mechanical mouse.
1: Moving the mouse turns the ball.
2: X and Y rollers grip the ball and transfer movement.
3: Optical encoding disks include light holes.
4: Infrared LEDs shine through the disks.
5: Sensors gather light pulses to convert to X and Y velocities.]]
A mouse is a handheld computer two dimensional pointing device, designed to sit under one hand of the user and detect movement relative to its supporting surface. In addition, it usually features buttons and/or other devices, such as "wheels", which allow performing various system-dependent operations. Extra buttons or features can add more control or dimensional input and any computer input device is now being termed a mouse as a generic input device.
The mouse's 2D motion is typically translated into the motion of a pointer on a display.
The name "mouse", coined at the Stanford Research Institute, derives from the resemblance of early models (which had a cord attached to the rear part of the device, suggesting the idea of a tail) to the common small rodent of the same name.See, for instance:
The first, bulky, mouse (pictured) used two gear wheels perpendicular to each other: the rotation of each wheel was translated into motion along one axis. Engelbart received patent US3541541 on November 17 1970 for an "X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System". At the time, Engelbart intended that users would hold the mouse continuously in one hand and type on a five-key chord keyset with the other.
Modern computer mice took form at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) under the inspiration of Professor Jean-Daniel Nicoud and the hands of engineer and watchmaker André Guignard. A spin-off of EPFL, Logitech, launched the first popular mice.
The major movement translation techniques are by optical, mechanical and inertial sensors.
Early optical mice, circa 1980, were of two types. Some, such as those invented by Steve Kirsch of Mouse Systems Corporation, used an infrared LED and a four-quadrant infrared sensor to detect grid lines printed on a special metallic surface with infrared absorbing ink. Predictive algorithms in the CPU of the mouse calculated the speed and direction over the grid. Others, invented by Richard F. Lyon and sold by Xerox, used a 16-pixel visible-light image sensor with integrated motion detection on the same chip (and tracked the motion of light dots in a dark field of a printed paper or similar mouse pad ([http://www.digibarn.com/collections/devices/xerox-mousepad/index.html). These two mouse types had very different behaviors, as the Kirsch mouse used an x-y coordinate system embedded in the pad, and would not work correctly when rotated, while the Lyon mouse used the x-y coordinate system of the mouse body, as mechanical mice do.
As computing power grew cheaper, it became possible to embed more powerful special-purpose image processing chips in the mouse. This advance enabled the mouse to detect relative motion on a wide variety of surfaces, translating the movement of the mouse into the movement of the pointer and eliminating the need for a special mouse pad. This advance paved the way for widespread adoption of optical mice.
Modern surface-independent optical mice work by using an optoelectronic sensor to take successive pictures of the surface on which the mouse is operating. Most of these mice use LEDs to illuminate the surface that is being tracked; LED optical mice are often mislabeled as "laser mice". Changes between one frame and the next are processed by the image processing part of the chip and translated into movement on the two axes using an optical flow algorithm. For example, the Agilent Technologies ADNS-2610 optical mouse sensor processes 1512 frames per second: each frame is a rectangular array of 18×18 pixels, and each pixel can sense 64 different levels of gray.
Optomechanical mice detect movements of the ball optically, giving the precision of optical without the surface compatibility problems, whereas optical mice detect relative movement of the surface by examining the light reflected off it.
As early as 1998, Sun Microsystems provided a laser mouse with their Sun SPARC Station servers and workstations.
Mechanical mice supporters point out that optical mice generally cannot track on glossy and transparent surfaces, including many commercial mouse pads, causing them to periodically "spin" uncontrollably during operation. Mice with less image processing power also have problems tracking extremely fast movement, though high-end mice can track at 1 m/s (40 inches per second) and faster.
Power conservation is typically not an issue for cabled mice:
At the time of writing (2006), mechanical mice have lower average power demands than their optical conterparts. This is of no practical concern for cabled mice, but has an impact on battery-powered wireless models. A typical mechanical model requires 25 mA at +5 V (= 0.125 W), or less, whereas an optical model attains 100 mA at +5 V (= 0.5 W) for optical devices (for a 4∶1 ratio).
Since optical mice render movement based on an image the LED reflects, performance on multi-colored mousepads may be unreliable. However, they will outperform mechanical mice on uneven, slick, squishy, sticky or loose surfaces, and generally in mobile situations where mouse pads are not available. The advent of affordable high speed, low resolution cameras and integrated logic that compose the optical mouse provide an ideal laboratory for experimentation on next generation input devices. Low cost components can be had by simply taking apart a working mouse and changing the optics or writing new software.
Most popular are mice with two buttons. The most common purpose for the second button is to invoke a contextual menu in the computer's software user interface, which contains options specifically tailored to the interface element over which the mouse pointer is positioned. By default, the primary mouse button is located on the left hand side of the mouse, for the benefit of right handed users.
On systems with three-button mice, pressing the center button (a middle click) is often used as a convenience to map the action to a commonly used action, or a macro. In the X Window System, middle clicking pastes the contents of the primary buffer at the pointer's position. Many two-button mice are configured to emulate a three-button mouse by clicking both the right and left buttons simultaneously. Middle-clicks are often used as a spare button in case a function is not allocated easily.
Douglas Engelbart's view of the optimal number of buttons was "as many as possible". The prototype that popularised the idea of three buttons as standard had that number only because "we couldn't find anywhere to fit any more switches".
The scroll wheel was first introduced by Microsoft IntelliMouse in 1996. The feature became a commercial success in 1997 when Office application suite and Internet Explorer browser started supporting the wheel scrolling feature. After that the scroll wheel has become a norm.
Some newer mouse models have two wheels, assigned to horizontal and vertical scrolling. Designs exist which make use of a "rocker" button instead of a wheel—a pivoting button that can be pressed at the top or bottom, simulating up and down respectively.
A more advanced form of mouse wheel is the tilt-wheel, found on some of the higher-end Logitech and Microsoft mice. Tilt wheels are essentially conventional mouse wheels that have been modified with a pair of sensors articulated to the tilting mechanism. These sensors are mapped, by default, to horizontal scrolling.
In 2005, the Apple Mighty Mouse introduced a third variety of built-in scrolling device: a "scroll ball", which is essentially a trackball embedded in the upper surface of the mouse, and is used like a two-dimensional scroll wheel.
The electrical interface and the format of the data transmitted by commonly available mice has in the past varied between different manufacturers.
With the introduction of the IBM PS/2 personal computer series in 1987, IBM introduced the eponymous PS/2 interface for mice and keyboards, which was rapidly adopted by other manufacturers. The most visible change was the use of a round 6-pin mini-DIN, in lieu of the former 5-pin connector. In default mode (called stream mode) a PS/2 mouse communicates motion, and the state of each button, by means of 3-byte packets.
A Microsoft IntelliMouse relies on an extension of the PS/2 protocol: it initially operates in standard PS/2 format, for backwards compatibility. After the host sends a special command sequence, it switches to an extended format, where a fourth byte carries information about wheel movements. The IntelliMouse Explorer works analogously, with the difference that its 4-byte packets also allow for two additional buttons (for a total of five).
The Typhoon mouse uses 6-byte packets which may be seen as a sequence of two standard 3-byte packets, and can thus be handled by ordinary PS/2 drivers.
Other extended format are use by mouse vendors, often without public documentation.
For 3D or 6DOF input, many extensions have been made to both the hardware and software. In the late 90's Logitech created ultrasound based tracking which gave 3D input to a few millimeters accuracy, which worked well as an input device but failed as a money making product.
Other input devices such as PhaseSpace's 3D optical tracking have been used to create VR and AR input devices, and are being experimented on at Cambridge, Cardiff, UCSC and other universities as well as government labs. This type of input device tracks multiple LED sources to provide sub millimeter tracking for input to control tools and robots in a real or virtual space as well as computer training.
Other unusual variants have included a mouse that is held freely in the hand, rather than on a flat surface, and detects six dimensions of motion (the three spatial dimensions, plus rotation on three axes). It was marketed for business presentations when the speaker is standing or walking around. So far, these mouse exotica have not achieved widespread popularity.
A less common unit is the "Mickey" (named after Mickey Mouse). It is not a traditional unit of measurement because it indicates merely the number of "dots" reported in a particular direction. Only when combined with the DPI of the mouse does it become an indication of actual distance moved. In the absence of acceleration, the Mickey corresponds to the number of pixels moved on the computer screen.
Additionally, operating systems traditionally apply acceleration, referred to as ballistics, to the motion reported by the mouse. For example, versions of Windows prior to Windows XP doubled reported values above a configurable threshold, and then optionally doubled them again above a second configurable threshold. These doublings were applied separately in the X and Y directions, resulting in very nonlinear response. In Windows XP and many OS versions for Apple Macintosh computers, a smoother ballistics calculation is used that compensates for screen resolution and has better linearity.
The fourth (current as of 2006) edition of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language reports both "computer mice" and "computer mouses" as correct plural forms for "computer mouse." The traditional form "mice," however, is the most common choice, whereas some technical documents' authors may prefer the form "mouse devices."
The mousepad is the most popular mouse accessory available, and is mostly used with mechanical mice since, to roll smoothly, the ball requires more friction than common desk surfaces usually provide. Special "hard mousepads" for gamers also exist.
With optical and laser mice the pad is no longer necessary, and its usage is mostly a matter of personal taste. An exception is when the desk surface creates problems for the optical or laser tracking.
The Macintosh design was influential, and its success led many other vendors to begin producing mice or including them with their other computer products. The widespread adoption of graphical user interfaces in the 1980s and 1990s made mice indispensable for computer use. As of 2000, Dataquest estimated that mice for a total cost of US$1.5 billion were sold annually worldwide.
Mice can also be used gesturally; that is, a stylized motion of the mouse cursor itself, called gesture, can be used as a form of command and mapped to a specific action. For example, in a drawing program, moving the mouse in a rapid "x" motion over a shape might delete the shape.
Gestural interfaces are rarer, and often harder to use, than plain pointing and clicking, because they require finer motor control from the user. However, a few gestural conventions have become widespread, including the drag-and-drop gesture, in which:
For example, a user might drag and drop a picture representing a file onto a picture of a trash can, indicating that the file should be deleted.
Other uses of the mouse's input are common in special application domains. In interactive three-dimensional graphics, the mouse's motion is often directly translated into changes in the virtual camera's orientation. For example, in the Quake computer game, the mouse is usually used to control the direction in which the player's "head" faces: moving the mouse up will cause the player to look up, revealing the view above the player's head.
When mice have more than one button, software may assign different functions to each button. Often, the primary (leftmost in a right-handed configuration) button on the mouse will select items, and the secondary (rightmost in a right-handed) button will bring up a menu of alternative actions applicable to that item. For example, on platforms with more than one button, the Mozilla web browser will follow a link in response to a primary button click, will bring up a contextual menu of alternative actions for that link in response to a secondary-button click, and will often open the link in a new tab or window in response to a click with the tertiary (middle) mouse button.
Advocates of multiple-button mice point out that support for a single button mouse often leads to clumsy workarounds in interfaces where more than one action may be useful for a given object. There are several common workarounds, and even widely used Macintosh software packages that otherwise fully conform to the Human Interface Guidelines, including web browsers and graphics editing programs, occasionally require the use of one of them.
One such workaround is the press-and-hold technique. In a press-and-hold, the user presses and holds the single button, and after a certain period, the button press is not perceived as a single click but as a separate action. This has two drawbacks: first, a slow user may press-and-hold inadvertently. Second, the user must wait while the software detects that the click is actually a press-and-hold, otherwise their press might be interpreted as a single click. Furthermore, the remedies for these two drawbacks conflict with each other: the longer the lag time, the more the user must wait; and the shorter the lag time, the more likely it is that some user will accidentally press-and-hold when meaning to click.
Alternatively, the user may be required to hold down a key on the keyboard while pressing the button (otherwise known as mouse chording - Macintosh computers use the ctrl key). This has the disadvantage that it requires that both the user's hands be engaged. It also requires that the user perform two actions on completely separate devices in concert; that is, pressing a key on the keyboard while pressing a button on the mouse. This can be a very daunting task for a disabled user. Studies have found all of the above workarounds less usable than additional mouse buttons for experienced users.
Most machines running Unix or a Unix-like operating system run the X Window System which almost always requires a three button mouse. In X, the buttons are numbered by convention. This allows user instructions to apply to mice or pointing devices that do not use conventional button placement. For example, a left handed user may reverse the buttons, usually with a software setting. With non-conventional button placement, user directions that say "left mouse button" or "right mouse button" are confusing. The ground-breaking Xerox Parc Alto and Dorado computers from the mid-1970s used three-button mice, and each button was assigned a color. Red was used for the left (or primary) button, yellow for the middle (secondary), and blue for the right (meta or tertiary). This naming convention lives on in some SmallTalk environments, such as Squeak, and can be less confusing than the right, middle and left designations.
An early technique of players was circle straffing, where a player could continuously strafe while aiming and shooting an opponent by walking in circle around the opponent with the opponent at the center of the circle. This could be done by holding down a key for straffing while continuously aiming the mouse towards the opponent.
After id Software's Doom, the game that popularized FPS games, but which did not support vertical aiming with a mouse (the y-axis was used for forward/backward movement), competitor 3D Realms' Duke Nukem 3D was one of the first games that supported using the mouse to aim up and down. It and other games using the Build engine had an option to invert the Y-axis (moving the mouse forward aims up, moving the mouse backward aims down). The "invert" feature actually made the mouse behave in the way that we now regard as normal. Soon after, id Software released Quake which introduced the invert feature as we know it now. Other games using the Quake engine were released and kept this feature. Probably because of the overall popularity of Quake, this became the current standard.
Pointing devices | Computing input devices | History of human-computer interaction
فأرة | Miš (hardver) | Мишка (хардуер) | Ratolí (ordinador) | Počítačová myš | Computermus | Maus (EDV) | Arvutihiir | Ποντίκι (συσκευή) | Mouse | Komputila muso | Sagu (ordenagailua) | موشی | Souris (informatique) | Rato (informática) | 마우스 | Informatik-apuntilo | Tetikus | Mouse | עכבר מחשב | Egér (számítástechnika) | Tetikus | Muis (computer) | マウス (コンピュータ) | Datamus | Muus (Reekner) | Mysz komputerowa | Rato (informática) | Maus | Компьютерная мышь | Computer mouse | Myš (hardvér) | Računalniška miška | Компјутерски миш | Hiiri (osoitinlaite) | Datormus | เมาส์ | Fare (bilgisayar) | Миша комп'ютерна | 鼠标
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